'Dead Poets Society' and its Delaware scenes live on for 35th anniversary

If you want to know about the time "Dead Poets Society" was filmed in Delaware in the late '80s, there's probably nobody better to talk to than Peter Hoopes.

Not only was the then-St. Andrew's School student an extra when the bulk of the Academy Award-winning film was shot at the Middletown private boarding school, he is also on the board of The Everett, the downtown Middletown theater where a key scene was filmed.

And to top it all off, the longtime Middletown resident has spent years teaching film studies at St. Andrew's ― sometimes even using Middletown's big Hollywood moment in his classroom, along with his own memories of working alongside "Dead Poets Society" star Robin Williams.

"It's an odd confluence, right? I obviously didn't plan all of this," he says of his "Dead Poets" bona fides.

'Dead Poets Society' turns 35

For Hoopes and plenty of Delawareans who were around in 1988, the legacy of "Dead Poets Society" in The First State remains strong as we approach the 35th anniversary of its release on Sunday, June 2.

Never before had a major movie studio shot the majority of its scenes in Delaware, never mind armed with a superstar like Williams in the lead role, an in-demand director such as Peter Weir ("Witness," "Green Card," "The Truman Show") behind the camera, and a story by screenwriter Tom Schulman, who won Best Original Screenplay for the film.

And there it all was in "a tiny farm town in the middle of nowhere," as Hoopes remembers Middletown before its development boom over the past three decades or so. "I look back in even more amazement now than I did then that Hollywood came here," he says.

While the past hoopla is mostly unknown to younger generations of Delawareans, the older set remember the excitement with filming across Middletown, New Castle and Wilmington with the 70-person film crew lodged at the old Radisson Hotel on King Street in downtown Wilmington, now home to the DoubleTree Hotel.

After all, more than 1,000 Delawareans were used as actors, extras, scouts and crew for the movie, which injected $8 million into the state's economy.

Legacy lives on at St. Andrew's School and The Everett

Some still arrive wide-eyed to the 450-seat Everett to this day ― the setting for a crucial 7-minute scene near the end of the film depicting a local production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

If you are familiar with "Dead Poets Society," a sign from the film gifted to the theater still welcomes theater-goers at The Everett, causing goosebumps for some. It reads, "Henley Hall Presents 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' " in black script on a white background.

"We don't over-promote it and don't want people to think it's the only reason we exist, but we certainly don't hide it," Hoopes says of The Everett, which hosts 10 main stage shows a year as well as second-run films. "People still get blown away sitting in the actual theater from the film."

Every five years, the quaint 102-year-old theater where popcorn still costs $2 shows "Dead Poets Society," filling with fans happy to reminisce about the time Middletown was the center of attention.

Today at The Everett: Open Call: The Everett Theatre elevates artistic excellence through community support

A 35th anniversary event is slated for Saturday, Sept. 7. Hoopes says boxes of old archives from the film were found in recent years ― everything from call sheets to other film documentation ― and they are currently being cataloged to be displayed in some manner in the future.

While some of that move magic still lingers at The Everett, which was built in 1922 after the town's opera house burned down in a fire, it also can be found at St. Andrews School, but in a slightly different way.

Sure, campus visitors will recognize Founders Hall, the school's dining hall and Noxontown Pond, sometimes even asking for what Hoopes refers to as the "Dead Poets Society tour" of the school.

But when students who know the school's halls intimately watch the movie, they easily can point out incongruities when characters go from one school setting to another. So much so that Hoopes usually doesn't show the entire film in his classes because current students of the 95-year-old school are so distracted by how the film's editing portrays the layout of St. Andrews School, renamed Welton Academy.

"They immediately start freaking out because they're like, 'Well, wait a minute, you can't go from that room to that room,'" Hoopes says. "They created a fictitious school by connecting spaces that don't exist."

'Spark that lit a fire'

Hoopes still points to his time as a movie extra as a senior high school student as a major influence in the path his life took, seeing a major motion picture production firsthand.

He got into the music production business after earning his bachelor's degree in music composition from the College of Wooster and his Master of Music degree from the University of Miami, eyeing music work in film and television.

He ended up working as a music producer and studio manager in New York City for a bit, but then Middletown came calling again.

Hoopes stepped into the role of the school's first director of information technology in 1998 before also adding classes as a film studies instructor and leading the film studies program. Outside of the school, he still collaborates as a screenwriter, director, editor and sound designer for film.

Hometown horror: The star-studded finale to a beloved horror trilogy is coming. This Delawarean is behind it

First State in film: This Delawarean is behind feature film remake of 'Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead'

"It was really influential for me, even to this day, to watch how the shoots were run, how the film was put together and how all the pieces work," he says. "It was a spark that lit a fire in me."

'O Captain! My Captain!': Honoring the late, great Robin Williams

In the balcony's cramped projector room where original 1940s Peerless Magnarc carbon arc projectors are still used to show 35-millimeter prints at The Everett, an understated nod to Williams sits on a shelf on the form of a placard made when he died Aug. 11, 2014. He was 63 when he died by suicide at his California home while suffering from Lewy Body Dementia.

"RIP Robin Williams 1951-2014 'O Captain! My Captain!,'" it reads, referencing his famous line in "Dead Poets Society," a line from a Walt Whitman poem of the same name written in 1865 about the death of President Abraham Lincoln.

"O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells/Rise up ― for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills," the poem reads.

The very much approachable Williams left his mark on the town, mostly because he was so affable in between shoots, playing around with students and just about anyone he encountered.

When he died, the marquee at the theater, which is clearly seen in the film, was changed to read "RIP Robin Williams." Fans stopped by to pay their respects with some leaving bouquets of flowers at the theater doors.

The theater's most public honoring of Williams' memory can be found at Seat 104 in Row G where Williams sat during the "Dead Poets Society" scene shot at The Everett. The theater's board decided to reupholster the chair, swapping the red fabric for black.

Some people specifically ask for the seat when attending a show, even to this day: "It's a small thing, but for some people it's really special," Hoopes says.

When you look out from the stage, you now see a sea of red broken up by a single black seat, forever dedicated to the beloved funnyman actor whose Delaware connection has yet to fade.

"O Captain! My Captain!," indeed.

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: 'Dead Poets Society' is still alive at these Delaware spots 35 years on